October 3, 2002

Affordable housing supporters

Sam Anderson, Adrienne Quinn and Lorig Associates received Pedestal Awards for their efforts to create affordable housing. The awards are given yearly by the Housing Development Consortium of Seattle-King County.

Anderson is executive director of the Master Builders Association of King and Snohomish Counties, which teamed with the consortium and the Seattle-King County Association of Realtors to develop commercials on KOMO-TV that focused on the need for affordable housing and pushed legislation that aimed to ease the condominium construction defects liability crisis. Anderson also serves on Washington’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board.

Seattle-based Lorig, headed by Bruce Lorig, "often takes on projects that include an element of 'social good'," the consortium said. It has partnered with the Central Area Development Association, AIDS Housing of Washington, the King County Housing Authority, St. Andrew’s Housing Group and the Eastside Housing Association on complicated affordable housing projects, helping them to use their funds more efficiently. The firm worked on development of The Village at Overlake Station in Redmond and is working on concepts for teacher housing with the King County and Seattle housing authorities.

Quinn, a land-use lawyer with Buck & Gordon, moved to the Northwest in the mid-1990s and is board president of Plymouth Housing Group. As a member of the Mayor’s Citizen Advisory Committee, she helped shape the 2002 Seattle housing levy that voters recently approved. Plymouth Housing Group executive director Paul Lambros says she's so eager to volunteer that when he sends out an e-mail to his board asking for help, he often puts "do not respond to this" on the one to Quinn.